Air Traffic Cuts Likely To Boost O`hare Delays

June 13, 1987|By Gary Washburn and Glen Elsasser, Chicago Tribune.

In a move expected to increase the number of flight delays at O`Hare International Airport and other major U.S. airports this summer, the federal government has announced a plan to limit traffic in crowded airspace.

Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole also proposed rules restricting activity by private pilots who fly near busy airports in an attempt to reduce the risk of midair collisions.

Under Dole`s plan, traffic will be restricted during busy periods in 125 sectors of airspace, including some that handle planes flying to and from O`Hare, that are approaching saturation. There are 652 sectors, or blocks of airspace, nationwide.

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration, a unit of the Transportation Department, quietly placed the traffic restrictions on some of the 125 sectors, including 10 that feed into O`Hare, officials said. Industry sources reported that delays have gone up significantly as a result.

Dole and the FAA have been under intense pressure from the National Transportation Safety Board and congressional critics to improve safety because of a rising number of near collisions and widespread reports of controller errors.

Increasing congestion has received a large portion of the blame for the problems.

Three basic strategies will be used to ``space out`` planes through the 125 busy areas, officials said.

They include routing traffic around the sectors, slowing planes down as they approach them and keeping craft on the ground until airborne congestion eases.

``On any given day, the FAA will restrict air traffic in as many sectors as necessary to keep the system at safe levels,`` Dole said.

Through May 31, the number of average daily delays nationally was 948. An FAA spokesman said he could not estimate how much that figure might increase under the new restrictions. However, an airline industry source said that a jump by one-third might be a reasonable estimate.

The number of delays on any given day depends on several variables, including weather and the volume of traffic.

He said he was encouraged by the action, particularly by the fact ``that they have identified and targeted almost 20 percent of the nation`s air traffic sectors as having the potential for saturation this summer.``

But Burnett said the program has yet to prove itself.

``When we see a decrease in the negative safety indicators that we monitor--such as operational errors and near midair-collision reports involving air carriers--and receive feedback from the air traffic facilities that they are under less pressure, we will have more basis for confidence,``

he said.

William Bolger, president of the Air Transport Association, an organization that represents major airlines, did not comment directly on the restrictions.

But in a swipe at the FAA, he said he hoped that delays and capacity shortages ``now have sufficiently captured the attention of the government that it will act in a timely, responsive manner to bring about improvements.`` Dole recently announced plans to add 955 air traffic controllers, supervisors and managers to cope with traffic increases. But critics, who termed the action woefully belated, have noted that it will be several years before the recruits are trained and have gained enough experience to reach

``full performance`` level.

The House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee approved the hiring of 95 more air traffic controllers than the government wants. Money for the extra controllers was included in a $26.4 billion measure for fiscal 1988 approved Thursday by the panel.

The government also has formally proposed a rule that would prohibit private pilots from flying anywhere within a 30-mile radius of O`Hare and other busy airports unless their planes are equipped with devices, called transponders, that enhance radar image and report altitude.